I concur, being one of those old dogs. The tech was different, and I think in many ways more challenging. But I'll take that one step further - engineers who "grew up" (ok, most of us never accomplished that feat) aligning signal paths have an easier time optimizing today's computer-centric studios. I've had occasion to help someone set up their studio for the best possible signal, and without fail they've always been amazed that their studio could sound so good, and that managing levels could be so easy.
This is not to suggest that there are not many talented engineers that came of age with computer based studios who understand all the underlying technology. They are out there, and the difference is that they made the effort to understand. If you ask them why they selected -18 dBFS as their 0VU reference they can tell you. The people that scare me are the ones that don't know the difference between digital and analog references<G>!
